Google Ads?

Why do we have Google Ads on our website?

It’s a excellent question, one I was asked recently. A client was putting up a website and looking over jkbConsulting.com. One thing she had questions about was should she have Google Ads on her site? Obviously, we think its a good idea, but not ads in general. As you might know I worked at an advertising agency in San Diego early in my career. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. Of all the things I learned is that ads can be very annoying...or very helpful. The key difference between the two is not how good the ad looks or the 'discount' the product has. The difference is if you, the viewer of the ad care about what is being advertised. In the ad game they call it 'targeted' advertising. If the ad is relevant to your interests, then it is a good ad. If you are interested in a new computer you actually want to see ads and offers about computers. If you are interested in a good book...you couldn’t care less about an ad for computers.

Based on the 'old' advertising model of websites. You know the ones...'Punch the monkey' or 'Make millions working from home' - NOT effective and a real bother to the viewer. So, based on the old model, I would recommend against putting ads on your website. What Google tries to do, and in my opinion, generally succeeds is to understand what you are interested in. They do that by reading the same webpage you are, and presenting ads that 'hopefully' are relevant to you. Suddenly you move from the 'intrusion' model to a model that helps bring you what you are interested in. In that sense, the ads are not much of a distraction and can actually be of service to the viewer.

Is this model perfect. No, not yet, and most likely will not be. There will always be advertisers that try to 'game' the system and do end up intruding, but the majority are bringing offers that make sense and are of interest. If that changes, you will see the ads removed from our site and my recommendation will be to remove them from yours.

The other question, not often asked, but always thought. Are we making big bucks from the ads we have on our site? Not at all...maybe a latte or two a year, but that's not our goal. Our goal is to bring you a website with two purposes; provide interesting, relevant information and tell you about our company. We don’t think the current Google Ads impede those goals.